Each year there are a significant number of people, especially healthcare workers, who are infected with blood-borne diseases through the inadvertent needle pricks from a hypodermic needle. A needle prick can lead to a very serious disease. In this connection, because needle pricks provide direct access to the venous system of the individual, it is possible for such person to contact serious diseases, such as AIDS or hepatitis B through an inadvertent needle prick. The most common time for these needle pricks to occur is when the hypodermic needle is being prepared for disposal or after actual disposal and in the process of destroying said needles. Thus, medical and waste disposal personnel are exposed to a serious risk of injury, infection and disease and even death due to contaminated medical instruments such as hypodermics which are known in the industry as “sharps”.
There are many well-documented cases of injury caused by these hypodermic needles or sharps, even while the sharp is encased during transportation to a waste site and during the process of destroying or burying the waste. Hypodermic needles have caused injuries in land fills, and the needles have even been known to wash up on beaches. As long as a needle remains sharp, there is a risk of injury and infection.
The main method of disposal of hypodermic needles today is to deposit the needle in a thick-walled plastic container immediately after use. These containers are then shipped to waste processing sites where they are typically incinerated. However, during this process, the container remains very susceptible to puncture. Also, the contaminated sharps or hypodermic needles may injure and infect individuals attempting to insert the needles into the containers. There are also several health hazards associated with incineration of the hypodermic needles due to the toxic byproducts of the incineration. Also, there is always a problem that these hypodermic needles will escape the medical waste disposal system and expose many people to health risks.
Thus, one of the objectives of this invention is to provide a device that will destroy the “sharps” or the hypodermic needle at the point of use. By destroying the hypodermic needle right at use, greatly reduces the chances of injury for the individual using the needle, and further, it virtually eliminates the possibility of a person being stuck by the needle in the disposal process or afterwards.
Another objective of this invention is to make the device small and light weight so that it can be easily used by health care personal, veterinarians, diabetics, etc. Further, an objective of this invention is to make the device portable and battery operated. The inventor also wished to make the device easy to operate and easy and inexpensive to manufacture. There have been numerous attempts in the prior art to produce a small, light weight, needle-disposing apparatus that could be easily used by healthcare professionals. Patents have been granted on needle-disposing apparatuses to Ch'ing-Lung, U.S. Pat. No. 4,628,169, Spinello, U.S. Pat. No. 4,877,934, Perk, U.S. Pat. No. 5,138,124, Burden, et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,212,362 and Walker, et al, U.S. Pat. No. 528,964.
All these patents use electricity to destroy the needle. However, they differ from the invention described in this application in that they all use basically an “arc-welding theory” to “dead short” the needle across two electrodes. Thus, the needle is actually placed between two electrodes, then the electricity flows through the width of the needle. There are several problems created by shorting the needle to destroy it. The first thing, the electrodes must make contact at the very bottom of the needle. If the electrodes do not make contact at the very bottom of the needle, the needle will be cut into pieces and a large portion of the needle may not be destroyed. Thus, in all these patents, either the electrodes move or, as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,877,934, 5,212,362, and 5,513,814, the needle must be moved. Thus, one of the objectives of this invention is to create a device for eliminating hypodermic needles that incorporate stationary electrodes. By making the electrodes stationary, one cuts down on the number of parts used and the complexity of the design and, thus, makes the manufacturing of the device easier and cheaper.
Applicant's device does not use the “arc-welding” theory of a dead short across the needle to eliminate the needle. Applicant's device uses “resistance” theory. In the applicant's device, the electric does not flow across the width of the needle, but flows up the length of the needle. When the needle is placed in the device, the electrodes make contact with the bottom and the top of the stainless steel needle. Electric flows from the bottom electrode to the top electrode through the needle, and since the needle is made out of stainless steel, it is very high in resistance. Thus, the needle heats and disintegrates. This process is almost instantaneous. This process also eliminates another problem caused by the dead-short or arc-weld theory. In the dead-short or arc-weld theory, the electric is transferred across the width of the needle and only a small portion of the needle is heated to the temperature to disintegrate at a time. This means that the needle is disintegrated one point of the time. Points above the needle end where it is being disintegrated are not treated to a high temperature. This could cause aerosols to be created by liquids or solids left on the needle. The invention described in this application treats the whole needle immediately to a high temperature and immediately kills any germs or viruses that may be present on the needle.
Another unique feature of this invention which the inventor has not found in the prior art is the collar in which the needle is inserted into the device. This collar has been designed to accept any type of hypodermic needle the inventor knows of on the market. The collar has also been designed to ensure the syringe with the needle will stop at a specific point on the electrode so that it will be fully disintegrated. As I stated above, one of the problems with the prior art is the needle can be inserted too far within the machine and be cut off or cut into a piece and not fully disintegrated.